This is my 4th book this year set in Georgia. Segregation and racism abound. Although the performance was decent as well as the story, it was way too painful to listen to or to be an enjoyable read. For a time, I'm going to avoid reading fiction that occurs in the south with its rampant abuse of anyone that's not white: lynching, rape, jim crow, segregation, destruction of churches and families ... no more, no thank you.

The audio underscores the poetry but the dialogues in it need more animation. I highly recommend hearing this audiobook. What I understood more this third time learning this story was the necessity of Frank confronting his own emotions including shame of murdering a Korean girl who was foraging and prostituting herself for survival. Very relevant to the shame that the working class has to pay for making a living in an imperialist economy. -RF.

This is on par with Toni Morrison's other fiction-- moving, redemptive, and poetic. This audiobook is an outstanding performance, and listening to Ms. Morrison perform gives weight and movement to the words. The understated and contained expressiveness of her voice reflects the tension and containment that the characters must bring to themselves as they cope with overwhelming traumas of war, medical abuse, and racism. Listen and listen again.

To hear the author read the work as she intended it to be heard, with emphasis where she wanted, is an extraordinary experience. The slow cadence of Toni Morrison's voice is almost hypnotic, and the sound of it will stay with you for long after you are through listening. The story is simple, the layers of meaning are not, and this is very worth listening to.